Rose Weasley and Why Is My Life So Maddeningly Difficult?
by amajorfangirl
Summary: Hi, I'm Rose. Everyone in the Wizarding World knows my family, the Weasleys. So when I'm convinced to enter my name in the Goblet of Fire, and I'm chosen out of dozens, all eyes are on me. I can't mess up, or I'll disappoint Gryffindor House, Hogwarts, and, worst of all, my family. With this pressure, added to never-ending boy trouble, how will I ever make it through Seventh Year?
1. Chapter 1

"Oh, come on, Rose!" exclaimed Dominique, my cousin and best friend. We were walking down the halls towards the common room on the other side of the castle. I walked briskly, hugging my books as Dom practically ran to keep up.

"No! How many times do I have to tell everyone that?" I responded. Ever since the Goblet of Fire was opened up to the students seventeen and older, people, mainly Dom, had been bugging me to enter my name in the Triwizard Tournament.

"But you'd be perfect! You're witty, quick on your feet, and great under pressure. How cool would it be if you were the first female winner of the Triwizard Tournament?" Dom had been relentless trying to convince me to enter. She wouldn't let it drop. I didn't want to enter my name in the Goblet. People already paid extra attention to me because my dad was Ron Weasley. I didn't need, or want for that matter, any more attention. Besides, I didn't consider myself a very skilled witch.

As Dom continued to nag me, we came across my cousin, Albus Potter, walking the opposite way to the Slytherin common room. Dom grabbed him by the collar and yanked him over. "Al, don't you think Rose should enter the Triwizard Tournament?"

Albus put an annoyed look on his face. "Please don't bring me into this," he said.

"But it would be so cool!" Dom tried to convince me. I sighed in return.

"Oh, Rose, won't you just do it to get Dom off our backs?" Al pleaded. Dom looked at him with disgust.

"Alright, alright," I gave in, "I'll do it." Dom jumped up and down with excitement.

"Yes!" she squealed. "My cousin is going to be the Triwizard Champion!" Her grin reached from ear to ear.

"Yeah, right..." I trailed off.

"Let's go!" Dom said, pulling my arm. I was half-dragged all the way to the Great Hall. The group of kids who surrounded the Goblet almost constantly watched as I stuck my hand into my bag. Rummaging around a bit, I pulled out a spare piece of parchment, a quill, and some ink. I scrawled my name out.

"Rose... Weasley..." I said, writing "There." I showed Dominique the paper. The crowd of students cheered as I stepped forward.

"Yeah, way to go Rose!" Some of my classmates in the seventh year whooped. A group of stuck-up-looking Beauxbaton girls gave me dirty looks when I dropped my scrap of paper into the huge Goblet and turned around.

Walking away, I said, "Happy?" to Dom.

"Yes," she replied with a smile, "very."

The next day was when the names were chosen from the Goblet. A feast would be held in the Great Hall for all the Hogwarts, Beauxbatons, and Durmstrang students. Headmaster Flitwick would announce the champions in front of everyone.

It was a chilly autumn day, the kind that's great for thinking. I spent all morning hanging around the castle on my own. I didn't really want to tell anyone that I put my name in the Goblet of Fire. Fame isn't scarce in the Weasley family, nor the Potters. Some people already stayed away from my family because of the attention we got. Not to mention that I was related to about half the school at the time. Everybody knew our names. And now, if my name was chosen from the Goblet, it would be me, rather than my family, in the spotlight.

I walked across the beautiful Hogwarts grounds. My original destination was Hagrid's hut, but I decided I wanted to spend the time before the feast alone. I strolled in the direction of the lake. I liked to sit there alone, and think. I kept my distance as I passed the Whomping Willow, and then I arrived at the lake.

I had always loved sitting by the lake. The still water and fresh air calmed my thoughts. My favorite spot to sit was in between two roots of an old oak on the lakefront. I discovered this perfect spot in my first year. It was the perfect nook. Then, it was rather roomy, but know it's the best place to curl up in with a book.

My favorite thing to do in my past time was read. I liked any literature, really, but my favorites were Muggle classics. Madam Susa, the librarian, always had books on hold for me. I could sit in my favorite spot for hours on end, reading whatever I had last picked up at the library.

Looking forward to curling up in my perfect nook, I rounded the huge tree trunk and

"Ahh!" I let out a little scream.

"O-Oh, I'm s-sorry!" A blonde-haired boy stuttered, standing up. He fumbled with his books as he tried to put them away. The boy dropped his schoolbag, and a roll of parchment unrolled right to my feet. I reached down to pick it up. Blood rushed to the boy's cheeks as I handed the parchment back to him.

The boy looked really familiar. "Hey, Scorpius, right?" I asked him.

The smallest trace of a smile flashed across his face. "Yeah," he responded, "I'm in Slytherin; we have Potions together." Scorpius and I were still crouched down picking up the contents of his spilled bag.

"Nice to meet you, Scorpius. My name is—"

"Rose." Scorpius finished. "Rose Weasley. I know who you are."

I sighed. "Of course you do." Only then did I look down at the object from Scorpius' bag in my hand. "Wuthering Heights? You're reading Wuthering Heights?" I asked him.

His face only turned redder as he replied, "It's one of my favorites. Have you read it?"

"Yeah, I have," I said in return, with a tone of surprise still eminent in my voice. "It's one of my favorites, too."

"I wanted to read The Outsiders again, but someone already checked it out of the library." Scorpius added, looking a bit uncomfortable.

This time I couldn't help but smile. "That would be me. I'm reading it now for the first time."

There was a pause of silence. Then Scorpius said, "Well, do you like it?"

Here, I laughed. "Yeah, I do like it."

"I, uh, came down here to read, and I thought this would be a nice place to sit," he explained, gesturing to my favorite spot. "Do you want to sit here?"

"Well, it is my perfect nook, but," I looked down at my watch, "it looks like there's only a half hour before the feast starts. I better head back to the castle."

"Of course," Scorpius replied, solemnly. "The feast. I should be getting back too." He slung his bag over his back, I shouldered mine, and we walked back to the castle in silence, going our separate ways once inside the doors.


	2. Chapter 2

After returning to my dorm and making myself look somewhat decent in my Gryffindor robes, Dom and I started walking to the Great Hall ten minutes before the feast was scheduled to start. It seemed like I did everything with that girl.

Dominque Weasley is my Uncle Bill and Aunt Fleur's second daughter. She's an eighth Veela, so her appearance is pretty much breathtaking. Her long, blonde Veela hair reaches just past her shoulder blades, and she has shocking green eyes. Dom is about 5'8" without heels, a whole seven inches taller than me. It probably should bother me that whenever we're together, boys only stare at Dom, but it doesn't. We're cousins, roommates, and best friends. I can't imagine life without her, even though I can't stand her sometimes.

On the way down to the Great Hall, I told Dom about my little walk earlier in the afternoon. "And when I got down there," I told her, "there was a guy sitting in my perfect nook."

This was followed by a dramatic gasp. "No. Way. Nobody sits in that perfect nook but you. Did you kick his ass?" Dom played around. She didn't get why I would go down to the lake and read instead of hang out with everyone. I guess she didn't understand that, while she was one of the most popular girls in our year, I'd rather have my nose in a book than be social.

"No," I rolled my eyes. "We actually had a nice conversation." I said, matter-of-factly.

Now I had her attention. "Ooooh, you did? You actually had a conversation with a boy? What did you talk about?" Dom probed as we walked down the last staircase.

"Well, mostly books," I said, realizing how pathetic it sounded.

Dom glared at me. "Seriously?" she asked. "You get a chance to talk to a guy, and you talk about books. What else would I expect of you?" Dom sighed. "Who was it anyway?"

We were nearing the Great Hall. "That kid Scorpius in our Potions class." I answered.

"Scorpius? Scorpius Malfoy?" She exclaimed.

"Wait, Malfoy?" I asked, confused.

"The grandson of Lucius Malfoy, one of the most feared Death Eaters? The son of Draco Malfoy, the youngest ever Death Eater, not to mention your parent's childhood arch enemy? Come on Rose, the Malfoys! One of the most hated families in the history of magic!" Dom demanded.

"Dad loathes those guys," I said quietly.

Dom was appalled. "No duh, Rose!" She retorted aggressively. A little gentler, she said, "Do some research before you decide you want to get close to a guy."

I nodded. A second too late, I countered, "Hey, I never said I wanted to get close to him!"

Dom quickened her pace a little more. "I could see it in your eyes!" she shouted as I started chasing her the rest of the way.

"Alright, alright girls, that's enough." Professor Longbottom said as we rounded the corner into the Great Hall.

"B-But Neville!" I replied, panting. "She- she said that- I wanted—"

"Rose, how many times do I have to tell you to call me Professor Longbottom at school?" He said with a wink. "Now go find a seat." Although Neville was the Herbology teacher, he was still a close family friend. I don't really think he minded that my family still called him by his first name.

Dom and I took our seats at the Gryffindor table. The Great Hall was significantly larger than normal, considering we had to fit two more whole schools. Once it seemed that everyone had arrived and the hall was full, Headmaster Flitwick made his way to the podium and stepped up onto his stool. The room went silent almost immediately. Flitwick's high-pitched voice filled the Hall:

"Before we begin, I want to talk to you all about the importance of this particular tournament. The Triwizard Tournament is an excellent opportunity to not only exercise our skills and cheer on our classmates, but also to meet new friends and learn from those who do things differently from us. Although past years have ended... unexpectedly," he paused, "the teachers here at Hogwarts and also at Beauxbatons and Durmstrang are all contributing to make this tournament as safe as we can. Even taking this into consideration, we warn everyone, champion or not, to use caution when involving the tournament tasks. There has been loss of life in this competition, and though we try our hardest to avoid it, death or serious injury may come to the unprepared. We use this sacred time to unite as a wizarding community and share our many traditions," Flitwick went on, "so I wish this year goes as well as we all hope. Now, it is time for our champions to be chosen from the Goblet of Fire."

All of the eyes in the room turned to the Goblet. It was a worn silver color, and quite large. It had blue flames swirling around it constantly. There were inscriptions around the base and rim in an ancient language I didn't know. There was some strong sense of power that I felt when I looked at it.

After a short silence, Flitwick said, "Our first champion will be from Durmstrang." The fire around the Goblet turned a blazing red, and a small, charred piece of parchment flew from inside. It sailed over to Headmaster Flitwick, who caught it and read the name out loud. "The Triwizard Champion from Durmstrang is- Malakai Penderghast."

Loud, deep cheering sounded through the Great Hall as the boys at the Durmstrang table crowded around a single student. He was tall, probably close to 6'2", and he had close-cropped, chocolate brown hair. He was muscular too, very well built. Malakai stood up and strolled carelessly over to Professor Flitwick.

"Oi, there's a sight for sore eyes." Dom said to me, raising her eyebrows. He _is_ handsome, I thought to myself.

They shook hands, and Malakai was lead to another room somewhere off to the side.

"Next," the Headmaster continued, quieting the chatter, "we have our Beauxbatons champion." Once again, the goblet blazed red and a name shot out. Flitwick proceeded, "Our Beauxbatons champion is the lovely Althea Ross." A small, fragile-looking, dirty-blonde with shoulder-length hair was congratulated by the rest of Beauxbatons. She shook hands with Flitwick and was sent to the same room as Malakai.

"And last, but most certainly not least, our Hogwarts champion." The goblet spit out the third and final name. "Ah," Flitwick smiled, "and our champion from Hogwarts would be Miss Rose Weasley." Roars erupted around me and I found myself swarmed with kids. Dom was screaming somewhere to my right, and there was clapping and cheering all around. I fought my way out of the horde of students and walked toward the Headmaster.

"Congratulations," Professor Flitwick said as he shook my hand.

I returned a small smile and thanked him. He pointed me in the direction of the champions' room. I walked towards a door in the back left of the Great Hall with the slowly fading sounds of whoops and applause behind me.

When I stepped inside the room with the other two champions, I was immediately pulled over to stand in between Malakai and Althea, the other two champions.

"Say cheese!" a cameraman declared.

I barely had time to smile before he snapped the picture. A young-looking black woman said to us, "This is going to make the morning edition of The Daily Prophet. Your interviews will be tomorrow. Back here at ten o'clock, okay?" The three of us nodded in response.

I had wondered if I would regret putting my name in the Goblet. I wasn't exactly sure if I'd be relieved or disappointed had I not been chosen. Being the Hogwarts champion highlights me from my already famous family, but I think it's a good thing. Before, I thought that I didn't like being a part of my family because I didn't like the attention. Now I realize that I didn't like being grouped with them. Not Rose; a Weasley. Not intelligent; Hermione's daughter. Not pretty; another ginger. Now I'm not just a Weasley, I'm my own person. I just hope that my own person won't be the loser of the Triwizard Tournament.

When I finally got upstairs, Dominique lie awake waiting for me. She gave me a big hug when I walked in, and told me I'd be great. My other three roommates were already sleeping. I changed into my pajamas and fell asleep hoping to dream of success. I hadn't known that the next seven months would hold more than anything I could dream of.

The next morning, I woke up at around nine to get ready for my interview. Only one of my roommates, Belle, was up already. She was a flirt, and put a lot of work into the way she looked every day. She was almost as gorgeous as Dom, but Dom didn't have to work as hard for her beauty. Belle had long blonde hair with natural light brown highlights. In my opinion, her stunning blue eyes were her best feature. They were the color of still water on a sunny day, and my dull brown eyes looked faded in comparison.

Belle was drying her hair with a new blow-dry spell she learned from Teen Wizard magazine.

"Why don't you just use an instant-dry spell?" I had asked her a few weeks ago.

She sighed. "Because Rose, instant-dry spells suck all the moisture out of hair. It gets brittle, and then you get split ends," she said, as if everyone should know this.

I hopped out of bed and walked into our shared bathroom to wash up. I cleaned my freckled-face and brushed my teeth. Running a brush through my long, frizzy red hair, I poked my head out the door.

Whispering so I didn't wake my other dorm mates, I asked, "Belle, will you pick out an outfit for me?" I wasn't about to let my awful sense of style get in the way of this interview for the newspaper.

"Sure, hon," she replied.

I took one last glance in the mirror and made sure I looked suitable. When I walked out of the bathroom, Belle already had an outfit laid out for me.

"Um, isn't this Diana's?" I asked, lifting up a sheer skirt with a dark purple print owned by another roommate, Diana.

Belle smiled her mischievous grin. "Yeah, but she's still asleep. Besides, it goes with your yellow top."

"Oh, alright…" I trailed off. Diana didn't cope well with people borrowing her things.

I changed in the bathroom and stepped out. Belle smiled and put her hand over her mouth.

"You look great!" she cheered, making our other roommate Malia stir in her sleep.

"Hey," Malia said groggily, "what are you doing dressed so fancy?"

This statement woke the rest of the room.

Dom smiled, still half-asleep. "You look great, Rose."

Diana's eyes widened in realization. "Wait," she said frowning, "isn't that my skirt?"

A glittery, silver ballet flat landed in my hands. Belle chucked me the other one and shoved me towards the door. "Run!" she said.

I heard the muffled sounds of Diana getting out of bed and Belle restraining her as I walked briskly down the stairs to the common room. I got congratulations and good luck wishes from almost everyone I passed in the hallways, which wasn't many considering it was just before ten o'clock on a Sunday morning and most students were still sleeping.

After I walked through the Great Hall, I came to the room I was in last night with the other champions. I opened the door and realized I was the last one to show up. The small clock on the wall read 10:01. I sighed and took my place next to the other champions for another group picture.

"Good morning, champions, I'm afraid we haven't had any formal introductions before, but my name is Mira Lennar," Mira smiled at me. "I've been assigned the entire Triwizard Tournament project by The Daily Prophet, along with my cameraman, Mel." She gestured to the short, overweight, balding man behind the camera who gave a smile and wave. "It's going to be a pretty big event, the first Triwizard Tournament since… well, you know all know what happened. Now, this morning we'll just take a few more group and individual photos, and then we'll have an interview of the three of you separately. Sound good?"

We all nodded as Mira stepped out of the way and Mel told us to smile. I honestly thought I looked awful standing next to these other perfect-looking human beings.

Malakai, the Durmstrang champion, stood in between me and Althea, the Beauxbatons champion. He was wearing a light blue polo shirt, khaki slacks, and a simple pair of Sperry Topsiders. His short, brown hair was combed down neatly. It matched the color of his deep brown eyes. Malakai made sure to shoot a dazzling smile towards the camera before each click. He was really good at this photo shoot thing.

On the other side of him stood Althea. She was wearing a sky blue, thin-strapped sundress that stopped above her knees. Her dirty blonde haired was pulled into a short side-braid that sat on her left shoulder. She looked flawless. Althea was actually tall enough to stand next to Malakai without looking tiny. The same could not be said for me.

I tried to give the camera my best smile, which I knew would come out lopsided every time. It always did. When we were finally finished with the group and individual pictures, it was time for the interviews.

"Okay, why don't we have Althea first?" Mira suggested. Come on down and sit with me, I'll ask you a few questions about…" she trailed off as she walked away with Althea. She opened the door to a little closet in the corner. She let Althea in, then went in herself and shut the door behind her.

Malakai and I were left alone with Mel the cameraman, who was packing up his things.

"So, you're a Weasley." Malakai said, turning towards me. "We learn a lot about Ron and Hermione Weasley in school. I assume you're related."

"Of course you do," I replied. "My name is Rose. I'm their daughter."

"Malakai Penderghast," he introduced himself, reaching out his hand.

I shook his hand. He had a very firm grip. "Nice to meet you, Malakai."

"Why don't you just call me Kai? My full name is a mouthful," he added.

"I can do that," I smiled at him. "So where are you from?" I asked. I noticed his accent wasn't like the other boys from Durmstrang.

"Yeah, pretty noticeable, huh? My family is from America. We moved here when I was eight. My grandfather went to Durmstrang, and he wanted one of his grandchildren too. I'm the only boy, so here I am." He explained. I nodded along.

"So you like it here at Hogwarts?" I asked.

"Yeah, I do, really," he answered. "It's a lot different from how we do things at Durmstrang, but it's a good different. No as uptight, you know?"

"Mhm." I replied. I really wanted to keep talking to Kai, but I didn't know what to say. There was something about him that had me mesmerized.

"The food is amazing, too," he added.

"Agreed," I smiled. "Those House Elves in the kitchen sure know how to cook."

"Yeah," Kai smiled back. He just sat there for a few seconds, staring at me with those dark brown eyes.

"Ehm, what is it?" I asked starting to feel uncomfortable.

He leaned back, as if coming out of a trance. "Oh, nothing," he said, turning away.

It was silent for a few moments. Althea and the Interviewer had been talking for a while. I wondered if I was going to have to tell the interviewer much.

"Do you want to study together tomorrow?" Malakai said.

I definitely did not want to say something wrong, because there will probably be a lot of people reading the article. My Uncle Harry taught me to be really careful around the press. He has experience with them twisting around words. There was a long pause and

"Wait, what? You want to study together?" I asked, stunned. "Like, like a date?"

"Uh, well, if you want to," Kai responded, surprised at my reaction. I felt really stupid.

"Oh, oh yeah, sure, ehm—" I fumbled over my words. I noticed Althea was walking back towards us.

"How about seven?" he said slowly. "After dinner?"

"Rose, are you ready?" Mira called loudly from the doorway of the room for interviews.

"Uhh, yeah I'm coming," I shouted to her, standing up.

"Tomorrow at seven, uh, yeah that sounds good," I told Kai, walking backwards towards the door. He smiled, and I turned around, narrowly missing a frowning Althea.

"What was that about?" I heard Althea question. Kai laughed as I speed-walked out of earshot.

Mira and I sat down in the stuffy room so she could ask me some questions in private. The room was so small it would probably be considered a closet in most cases.

"Okay, Rose, so we'll start off we your past," Mira began. "Your uncle competed in the last Triwizard Tournament, which ended quite tragically. He was the youngest person ever to compete, and not to mention one of the most famous wizards we know today. Your parents are also renowned for their work. How do you feel about being another headlining girl in your family?" She held a notepad and quill steady on her lap.

"Well, um—" The notepad lifted into the air, while the quill poised itself in ready position. "I, uh," I wracked my brain for the right thing to say. "You see, um," my throat seemed to close up.

"Rose, it's alright," Mira soothed. "I'm not going to publish anything you don't want me to. Just say what you think and I'm sure that will be sufficient."

Everything about Mira said, "gentle". She was an average five-feet six-inches. She had short, tight black curls around her head and soft, dark skin. Her caring eyes and comforting words encouraged me.

"Right, well," I started. Mira gave me an urging smile. "So, I'm sort of used to a bit of attention. I usually get picked out in a crowd, well, you know, or my family does? So a lot of the time, other people will just be like, "Hey, there's a Weasley," and I've never really liked the attention, but I think it might be just how people see me, you know? Because I was just a Weasley, but now I'm kind of, sort of like my own person, and people will see me as Rose instead, and I think that's better than just being that Weasley daughter," I became more comfortable as I kept talking. "And definitely one of my hopes in this process is maybe people sort of realize that there's more to us Weasleys than just, "the family of those guys". And I hope I win, well that's a bit obvious, isn't it? But it really wouldn't be that bad if I didn't, because maybe people's expectations would be lowered, but then I'm also worried that people would be like, "I guess the Weasleys really aren't that great after all", and that's also what scares me a bit. Disappointing my family, or maybe not living up to what my parents and uncle and uncle did before me. Yeah, there's loads that freaks me out, but I guess we'll really just have to see how things go." I finished and, realizing I had been looking down at my hands the whole time, turned my head up to look at Mira. She smiled and nodded, as the quill floating next to her scribbled down my last words.

"Thank you, Rose, I think that will be enough for today." Mira said as we stood up. She opened the door, and caught my shoulder on my way out. "Look, I know it's got to be rough, but I'm sure you'll do fine. I knew your parents, and great people like them would never put too much pressure on you."

"Wait, you knew my parents?" I asked.

"Yes, if you could call it that. I went to school with them, was a fourth year in the Battle of Hogwarts, just snuck in the battle because I loved my school. Couldn't do much but petty spells at that point, but I did some good with the Full Body-Bind Curse. And just once, I was in a fix, some Death Eater got his wand pointed at me, when your dad came running around the corner with your mum in tow and blasted the bastard to the ground. Barely had time to thank him before they were off again." Mira was staring into the distance as she recalled her memories.

A small smile crept across my face. "Yeah, they are great people," I said, suddenly missing them. "Thank you for helping me, with the interview, with everything."

"You're welcome," she said. "I'll see you soon."

Exiting the room where we took the pictures, I walked into the Great Hall, now full of students eating breakfast. I saw Dom, Belle, Diana, and Malia sitting together at our normal spot at the Gryffindor table. I walked towards them, but remembering my sudden longing for my parents, I walked past them on the bench. Ten paces more, and I took a seat next to my brother, Hugo.

"Hey Rose, what's up? Wanna see my new Pokemon cards?" Hugo was a second year Gryffindor. He was obsessed with some rubbish Muggle card game Gramps showed him last summer. It seemed as though he introduced it to his friends, too.

"Uh, no thanks Hugo, I'm sure they're great, um, very special." I replied. As much as I missed my little brother, I didn't miss his nerdy habits. I reached to the middle of the table and grabbed my usual banana-nut muffin.

"Do you still eat those every morning?" Hugo asked with a frown and a mouthful of Pixie Puffs. "Try one of the pumpkin muffins. They're really good."

I looked down at my muffin, suddenly self-conscious about my morning eating habits. I put down the nutty, familiar muffin in my hand, and traded it for a powdery, strange one. I took one bite of the breakfast delight, thanked Hugo for opening my mind, and got up to go talk to my friends.

I considered it a rather productive morning. I met a friend, scheduled a date, and tried a new muffin, which was rather delicious, by the way. Everything was going well at the time, but with a life like mine, things were bound to change. The trick is to make the good last as long as possible.

A/N: Yeah that conclusion really kind of sucked, but I couldn't think of a way to wrap it up. Yes, I did finally update, like two months later. Ok so just one thing really: I know Hugo is only supposed to be like two years younger than Rose, but I like the idea of writing him a lot younger. So instead, he's five years younger than Rose. So that's about it, comment, whatever, but please do comment, I really like to hear what you have to say. Thanks for reading!


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